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CS Invincible (CVA-01) class aircraft carrier (1983: Doomsday)
The''' CS Invincible (CVA-01) class aircraft carrier', often referred to as just '''CVA-01', is a class of two 68,000 tonnes supercarriers of the Celtic Naval Defense Force (1983: Doomsday) (CNDF) constructed in the mid- to late 1960s, prior to Doomsday (1983: Doomsday). Originally built for the Royal Navy (1983: Doomsday), the two ships were transferred over to the Celtic Naval Defense Force after Doomsday. They are the longest warships ever built for the CNDF at 293.6 m (963 ft 3 in). Two supercarriers were built: CS Queen Elizabeth (CVA-01) (1983: Doomsday) and CS Duke of Edinburgh (CVA-01) (1983: Doomsday). Origins In the 1960s the Royal Navy was still one of the premier carrier fleets in the world, second only to the United States Navy which was in the process of building the 80,000 ton Kitty Hawk class aircraft carrier (1983: Doomsday). The fleet included the fleet carriers CS Ark Royal (R09) (1983: Doomsday), CS Eagle (R05) (1983: Doomsday), and two much smaller carriers, the completely reconstructed CS Victorious (R38) (1983: Doomsday), and the much newer light carrier CS Hermes (R12) (1983: Doomsday) both with 3D 984 radar and C3 but limited to air groups of 25 aircraft, at the most 20 fighters and strike aircraft and 5 helicopters or alternatively 16 fighters and strike aircraft and 4 AW Gannets turboprops and 5 helicopters. A fifth carrier, CS Centaur (R06) (1983: Doomsday), was modernized to the minimum standard to operate 2nd generation Scimitars and Vixens in 1959, but was never satisfactory or safe for operating nuclear strike aircraft and was a purely interim capability, while Eagle was refitting. While all four of the Navy's large carriers were capable of operating the S.2 version of the Blackburn Buccaneer strike aircraft, only Ark Royal and Eagle were realistically big enough to accomodate both a squadron of Buccaneers (up to 14 aircraft) and a squadron of F-4 Phantom II, which the Royal Navy intended to procure as its new fleet air defence aircraft. With the remainder of the air group this would give a total of approximately 40 aircraft, which compared poorly to the 90 available to a Kitty Hawk class ship. The increasing weight and size of modern jet fighters meant that a larger deck area was required for take offs and landings. Although the Royal Navy had come up with increasingly innovative ways to allow ever larger aircraft to operate from the small flight decks of their carriers, the limited physical life left in the existing ships (only Hermes was considered capable of reliable and efficient extension past 1975), and the inability of both Victorious and Hermes, the most effectively and expensively modernized of the carriers, to operate the F-4 or an effective and useful number of Buccaneers, made the order of at least 2 new large fleet carriers essential by the mid-1960s. Design considerations Once the Chiefs of Staff had given their approval to the idea of new carriers being necessary, in January 1962, in the strategic paper COS(621)1, British Strategy in the Sixties, the Admiralty Board had to sift through six possible designs. These ranged from 42,000 to 68,000 tons at full load. The largest design, based on the American Forrestal class aircraft carrier (1983: Doomsday), had space for four full sized steam catapults, but was rejected early on as being significantly too costly, particularly in terms of the dockyard upgrades that would be needed to service them. However, the advantages of size were immediately apparent. A 42,000 ton carrier could only hold 27 aircraft, whereas a 55,000 ton carrier could carry 49. This represented an 80% increase in the size of the airgroup for a 30% increase in displacement. Even with these smaller designs, however, cost was already becoming a serious issue. The HM Treasury and the Air Ministry were pushing for a new set of long-range strike aircraft operating from a string of bases around the globe. For the former this appeared a cost effective solution for the East of Suez issue, and for the latter it meant that the Royal Navy would not get a majority of the defence budget. However, this meant that by July 1963 it was announced that two supercarriers would be built. Design The CS Invinicble (CVA-01) class would have displaced 54,500 tons (although the ship was said to displace 53,000 tons "in average action condition"), with a flight deck length (including the bridle arrester boom) of 963 ft 3 in (293.60 m) The size of the flight deck, combined with steam catapults and arrester gear would have enabled the carriers to operate the latest jets. The aircraft complement would have included 36 F-4 Phantom II fighter/ground-attack aircraft and/or Blackburn Buccaneer low-level strike aircraft, four early-warning aircraft, five anti-submarine helicopters and two search-and-rescue helicopters. The large 'Broomstick' radar dome above the central island on the carrier was planned to be a Type 988 Anglo-Dutch 3D radar, which would subsequently be fitted on the Royal Netherlands Navy Tromp class frigates, although this would not have been fitted to the final carrier as Britain pulled out of the project. Category:Aircraft carriers (1983: Doomsday) Category:Aircraft carriers of the Celtic Naval Defense Force (1983: Doomsday)